Earth and Environment

07/31/2016

It's 2:00 am in the dark morning hours of June 28th, Mark Zuckerberg woke up and got on a plane. He was traveling to an aviation testing facility in Yuma, AZ, where a small Facebook team had been working on a secret project. Their mission: to design, build, and launch a high-altitude solar-powered plane, in the hopes that one day a fleet of the aircraft would deliver internet access around the world.

Zuckerberg arrived at the Yuma Proving Ground before dawn. Zuckerberg said in an interview with The Verge.

“A lot of the team was really nervous about me coming.”

A core group of roughly two dozen people work on the drone, named Aquila (uh-KEY-luh), in locations from Southern California to the United Kingdom. For months, they had been working in rotations in Yuma, a small desert city in southwestern Arizona known primarily for its brutal summer temperatures.

On this day, Aquila would have its first functional test flight: the goal consisted of taking off safely, stabilizing in the air, and flying for at least 30 minutes before landing. Zuckerberg says.

“I just felt this is such an important milestone for the company, and for connecting the world, that I have to be there.”

For Facebook, Aquila is more than a proof of concept. It’s a linchpin of the company’s plan to bring the internet to all 7 billion people on Earth, regardless of their income or where they live. Doing so will lift millions of people out of poverty, Zuckerberg says, improving education and health globally along the way. But it will also enable the next generation of Facebook’s services in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and more. This next era of tech will require higher bandwidth and more reliable connections than we have today, and drones can help deliver both. The road to a VR version of Facebook begins where Aquila leaves the runway.

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As the Sun rose over the desert, a crane lifted Aquila onto the dolly structure that would propel it into the sky. The drone has a tremendous wingspan: 141 feet, compared to a Boeing 737’s 113 feet. And yet Facebook engineered Aquila to be as light as possible to permit ultra-long flights. Built with carbon fiber, the latest iteration of the drone weighs around 900 pounds — about half as much as a Smart car.

A remote control operator activated the dolly, and Aquila began rumbling down the runway. The plane is attached to the dolly with four straps. When it reached sufficient speed, pyrotechnic cable cutters known as “squibs” cut through the straps, and Aquila lifted into the air, where it floated up its test altitude of 2,150 feet and stabilized. On the ground, Facebook’s employees were elated; some wiped away tears. Zuckerberg said.

“It was this incredibly emotional moment for everyone on the team who’s poured their lives into this for two years.”

Watching from below, Zuckerberg was struck by Aquila’s deliberate, unhurried pace. Zuckerberg said two weeks later, at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, CA.

“It flies really slowly. Most times when people are designing planes, they’re designing them to get people or things from place to place, so there’s no real advantage to moving slowly. But if your goal is to stay in the air for a long period of time, then you want to use as little energy as possible — which means going as slowly as you physically can, while not falling out of the air.”

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FLIGHT MANUAL

Okay, but why a plane? There are lots of ways to bring the internet to people that don’t involve designing your own drone.

There are satellites, which are good at delivering internet access to wide geographical areas. But they’re only effective in areas with low population density — too many users can gobble up the bandwidth in a hurry.

There are cellular towers, which excel at connecting dense urban populations. But building enough cellular towers to cover the entire Earth is considered too expensive and impractical, even for Facebook.

In 2014, Zuckerberg wrote a paper analyzing various methods of internet delivery. High-altitude drones, he said, could serve a huge audience of people who live in medium-sized cities or on the outskirts of urban areas. They fly closer to the ground than satellites, meaning their signals are stronger and more useful to larger populations. And they fly above regulated airspace, making them easier to deploy.

If Facebook could build a drone that gathered most of its power from the Sun, Zuckerberg reasoned, it could fly for 90 days. A laser communications system could deliver high-speed internet to base stations on the ground, connecting everyone within 50 kilometers. The planes would be easier to maneuver than, say, balloons — a method embraced by Google, which has embarked on its own global connectivity crusade with Project Loon. (Last year Google challenged Facebook more directly with Project Titan, a solar-powered internet delivery drone of its own.) If the drones could be built cheaply enough, they would one day dot the skies, and become a critical piece of the global internet infrastructure.

And so 26 months ago, Zuckerberg set an ambitious goal: to release a functional version of Aquila in just a couple years. He personally recruited experts from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT’s Media Lab, among other places, to bring his vision to life.

As part of the project, Facebook spent nearly $20 million to acquire the team behind Ascenta, an aviation consultancy led by Andy Cox. Cox is a mechanical engineer who previously worked on a team that kept a solar-powered drone in the sky for two weeks — still a world record. After Facebook acquired his consultancy, Cox became Zuckerberg’s top lieutenant on the Aquila project. The team works out of a warehouse in Bridgewater, 150 miles west of London.

As recounted in Wired earlier this year, building a working model of Aquila put the team in daily battle with the laws of physics. Early on, it attempted to launch Aquila with a hot-air balloon. A planned test flight date of October 2015 was pushed back, and then pushed back again. Attempts to fly a 27-foot scale model of Aquila were hampered by El Niño storms.

But by June 28th of this year, the team had overcome those hurdles. At cruise altitude, Aquila was using just 2,000 watts of energy — the equivalent output of five strong cyclists, Zuckerberg says. The company hoped Aquila would successfully remain aloft for half an hour. But it was so stable that they kept it in the air for 90 minutes before landing it safely.

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THE HARD PART

In it's first flight, Aquila exceeded engineers’ expectations for its energy efficiency. More test flights are planned, aimed at flying Aquila “faster, higher, and longer,” says Jay Parikh, Facebook’s vice president of engineering, in a blog post today. And then Aquila will have its next big test: flying with the “payload,” as Facebook calls the laser communication system that a team is building in Woodland Hills, CA. In July 2015, the team announced that its lasers could deliver data at tens of gigabits per second, about 10 times faster than the previous standard. And the lasers are quite precise, able to target an area the size of a dime from 10 miles away. (The lasers connect with base stations on the ground to supply internet access.) Facebook says the system has performed well in independent tests.

When will a fleet of Aquila drones bring data to the world? Facebook won’t say. There are several technical challenges remaining in getting Aquila to reliably fly 90-day stretches. The team hasn’t yet implemented solar panels on the prototype — the test flight plane ran using batteries only. The team is still working out how to build batteries with a density high enough to sustain lengthy missions. Then there’s the cost — Facebook says Aquila needs to be much cheaper if the world is going to deploy a fleet of them. Cox wrote in a blog posttoday.

“We need to develop more efficient on-board power and communication systems; ensure the aircraft are resilient to structural damage to reduce maintenance costs and able to stay aloft for long periods of time to keep fleet numbers low; and minimize the amount of human supervision associated with their operation.”

Aquila is also likely to face regulatory obstacles, which could rival the laws of physics in terms of the challenges they present. Facebook and Google have teamed up to work with authorities, such as the Federal Aviation Administration, to get permission for test flights and obtain access to the spectrum they need to serve data.

Facebook says it doesn’t plan to use Aquila to build its own cellular network. Instead, Zuckerberg says, it wants to license the technology — or even give it away to telecommunications companies, governments, and nonprofits. In emergency situations, he says, Facebook could direct its fleet to troubled regions to bolster internet access for hospitals and nonprofit centers.

But it remains unclear how governments will receive Facebook’s latest idea for connecting the world. The company’s efforts at diplomacy have sometimes been clumsy; Indian regulators banned Free Basics, Facebook’s effort to provide some internet services for free, on the grounds that giving the company control over the included services violates net neutrality. Bringing more people onto the internet, after all, is a way of bringing more people onto Facebook — and regulators have worried that the company’s end goal is to simply replace the open web for most users, while reaping the rewards in advertising dollars.

Zuckerberg says the company has learned from its failure in India — one he hopes is temporary. Solar-powered planes will raise additional regulatory issues, he says.

“We’ve learned a lot about how we need to interact with governments and the political system and regulators, and build support in order to have these things work. And I think we’ll take those lessons forward. But when I meet world leaders, a lot folks are really excited about this, because you want your people to be online, and you want more opportunities. And connectivity is one of the biggest ways that people get access to opportunities.”

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The path forward for Aquila isn’t totally clear, and it’s bound to encounter more bumps along the way. But Zuckerberg is resolute: billions of people who can’t access the internet deserve it. And for Facebook to achieve his long-term vision, everyone is going to need access to more bandwidth than they have today. A single test flight represents a tiny step toward getting there. But it also gives Facebook a dramatic success to rally around.

Zuckerberg says.

“I think the future is going to be thousands of solar-powered planes on the outskirts of cities and places where people live, and that’s gonna make connectivity both available and cheaper. And, I think, can help play an important role in closing this gap of getting more than a billion people online. This is an early milestone, but it’s a big one.”

Zuckerberg smiled and said.

“It’s not something you necessarily expect Facebook to do — because we’re not an aerospace company. But I guess we’re becoming one.”

COMMENTARY: Zuck's strategy to fly internet drones over poverty stricken geographical areas, like those in Africa, where the internet penetration is only 9.8%, or the cost of WIFI connectivity is prohibitably high, is really a ploy to get more Facebook users. At its core, it sounds like a noble and philanthropic mission of helping those in need, but it is solely about getting more eyeballs to connect through Facebook and sell them things through online ads. If Zuck really wanted to help needy African's he should take some of those billions he has and give it to charitable organizations which are fighting to eradicate hunger, AIDS, Ebola, malaria and other diseases.

11/21/2015

If you can't afford an ordinary apartment, maybe you can try living in a parking lot. Even a Google employee is already doing it, leaving the rest of us mere mortals resigned to our fate.

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In Bangkok, where rents are quickly rising and young professionals often struggle to find places to live, architects created a simple tiny house that can easily pop up in a parking garage or inside one of the city's half-built abandoned buildings.

"It is very difficult for young professionals to live with a bit of quality of life in the city. We noticed the issue and want to offer an alternative way of semitemporary living."

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Because the climate is mild in Bangkok, the pop-up apartments are open and airy—something that Choochuey says is somewhat similar to traditional Thai design.

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Choochey says.

"Traditionally architecture was so light, so thin. With modernization, we began to build following international standards, which are somehow too solid for tropical conditions. People ended up living in air-conditioned environments all the time, which is very absurd."

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Instead of solid walls, the structure has a lattice-like design that lets breezes pass through. She says.

"With the wall, we need as much ventilation as possible. It is always too hot, not cold. . . . The perforated nature of the structure would be perfectly matched with the climate conditions."

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The lightweight building can easily be moved from place to place and set up in unused spaces, like the many half-built buildings in Bangkok that were abandoned after repeated economic crashes. Instead of signing a lease, someone would have a home they could bring along if they need to move. She points out the housing's portability.

"It's a bit larger than moving a suitcase."

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When the architects set up a prototype in an abandoned parking garage, a couple of young designers volunteered to try living in it for a few days. Their verdict: It had some advantages over typical apartment living, beyond the savings in rent.

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Choochuey says.

"There are also opportunities for community gathering, the exposure that living in a small apartment unit of a big building cannot offer."

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The Light House is on display at the Chicago Architecture Biennial.

COMMENTARY: The lighthouse portable housing cubes attract squatters and are especially usable in tropical areas. The micro-dwellings can be built on a budget of just $1,200 (£790) and disassembled in a matter of hours.

The floors are made from plastic-laminated plywood, while a polyethylene-coated metal grid envelops the space and doubles as shelving structure. Different degrees of perforation creates various configurations and spaces that can be unique. The studio built two prototypes within a vacant parking garage in Bangkok for two designers who inhabited the structures for several days. The firm said.

“The prototype house could lead to a new type of housing with less rigid materiality and energy.”

Courtesy of an article dated November 4, 2015 appearing in Fast Company Exist and an article dated October 8, 2015 appearing in Habitat

05/14/2015

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveils the Tesla Powerwall Battery before the press on May 1 (Click To View Video)

Even Elon Musk's SolarCity, the biggest supplier in the U.S., isn't ready to install Tesla's home battery for daily users

On May 1, 2015, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk introduced a new family of batteriesdesigned to stretch the solar-power revolution into its next phase. There's just one problem: Tesla's new battery doesn't work well with rooftop solar—at least not yet. Even Solar City, the supplier led by Musk, isn't ready to offer Tesla's battery for daily use. The Daily Conversation explains why Tesla's Powerwall Battery is so amazing.

The new Tesla Powerwall home batteries come in two sizes—seven and 10 kilowatt hours (kWh)—but the differences extend beyond capacity to the chemistry of the batteries. The 7kWh version is made for daily use, while its larger counterpart is only intended to be used as occasional backup when the electricity goes out. The bigger Tesla battery isn't designed to go through more than about 50 charging cycles a year, according to SolarCity spokesman Jonathan Bass.

Here’s where things get interesting. SolarCity, with Musk as its chairman, has decided not to install the 7kWh Powerwall that’s optimized for daily use. Bass said that battery "doesn't really make financial sense" because of regulations that allow most U.S. solar customers to sell extra electricity back to the grid.

For customers of SolarCity, the biggest U.S. rooftop installer, the lack of a 7kWh option means that installing a Tesla battery to extend solar power after sunset won't be possible. Want to use Tesla batteries to move completely off the grid? You'll just to have to wait.Bass said in an e-mail.

“Our residential offering is battery backup,”

Musk said in a quarterly earnings call on Tuesday said that demand for the batteries has been "crazy off the hook," with 38,000 reservations for the Powerwall. While storing residential power with the Powerwall is still more expensive than grid power, he said, "that doesn't mean people won't buy it." Demand for the new batteries, including those for businesses and utilities, has been so strong that the company may need to considerably expand its $5 billion battery factory that's under construction in Nevada.

Tesla's Gigafactory, now in the process of construction in the State of Nevada, when completed in 2016, will produce Tesla Powerwall Batteries (Click Image To Enlarge)

The Economic Case for Tesla's New Battery Gets Worse

SolarCity is only offering the bigger Powerwall to customers buying new rooftop solar systems. Customers can prepay $5,000, everything included, to add a nine-year battery lease to their system or buy the Tesla battery outright outright for $7,140. The 10 kilowatt-hour backup battery is priced competitively, as far as batteries go, selling at half the price of some competing products.

But if its sole purpose is to provide backup power to a home, the juice it offers is but a sip. The model puts out just 2 kilowatts of continuous power, which could be pretty much maxed out by a single vacuum cleaner, hair drier, microwave oven or a clothes iron. The battery isn’t powerful enough to operate a pair of space heaters; an entire home facing a winter power outage would need much more. In sunnier climes, meanwhile, it provides just enough energy to run one or two small window A/C units.

For more demanding applications, Tesla made its Powerwall batteries so they can be attractively stacked, side-by-side. It looks like this:

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But SolarCity doesn’t offer a discount for multiple batteries. To provide the same 16 kilowatts of continuous power as this $3,700 Generac generator from Home Depot, a homeowner would need eight stacked Tesla batteries at a cost of $45,000 for a nine-year lease. Brian Warshay, an energy-smart-technologies analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance says.

"It's a luxury good—really cool to have—but I don't see an economic argument."

Yes, Tesla's Powerwall is cool technology with massive disruptive potential. As battery costs continue to fall and electricity regulations continue to evolve in the U.S., it's going to make ever more sense to own a home battery. SolarCity said in its earnings call on Monday that it plans to offer an off-grid package next year in Hawaii, where electricity prices are almost triple the U.S. average.

And the home-battery system is just one offering in the new lineup of Tesla batteries. The company is also doing business with big companies like Wal-Mart, Amazon and even with electric utilities like Southern California Electric and Texas-based OnCor. The economic argument for the commercial systems is straightforward in states with the right incentives, including battery subsidies and expensive electricity charges during peak hours. Tesla now has a clear pricing advantage against its battery competitors.

But the Powerwall product that has captured the public's imagination has a long way to go before it makes sense for most people. Even in Germany, where solar power is abundant and electricity prices are high, the economics of an average home with rooftop solar "are not significantly enhanced by including the Tesla battery," according to an analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

That won't stop homeowners from buying Tesla's new batteries. Germans are already buying storage systems by the thousands at significantly higher prices. In the U.S., the product's launch prompted a record day of inquiries from prospective new customers, according to SolarCity's Bass. He said.

"There's a tremendous amount of interest in backup power that's odorless, not noisy and completely clean."

Tesla is probably making very little profit on the home batteries at this point and might even be selling them at a loss, according to research by BNEF. Both Tesla and SolarCity are just getting started, trying to get some traction before Tesla's massive $5 billion battery factory begins production next year. That's when the battery market really gets interesting.

COMMENTARY: This is a great example of unveiling a new product, hyping that product to the high heavens, then taking orders for that product, before the product is ready for primetime.

Solar City's Jonathan Bass, the leading solar panel installer in the US, where Elon Musk is the Chairman, says Powerwall Battery "doesn't really make financial sense." This is one of the reasons, Solar City does not plan on selling the 7kWh version, but only the 10kWh battery.

Solar City says that homeowner's will need a bank of 10kWh batteries to provide adequate backup power. Instead 0f the $5,000 price tag for one Powerwall bundled with their solar panels, the true cost may be closer to $45,000 for a bank of several 10kWh batteries. Talk about sticker shock. These batteries may exceed the cost of the solar panels when all is said and done, and we still don't know if Solar City will charge for their installation.

During Tesla's earnings call with analysts on May 6, Elon Musk said that the company had already received more than 35,000 reservatons for the Powerwall battery ($3,000 each), and 2,800 reservatons for the Powerpack ($25,000) from businesses. The Powerpack can hold ten 10kWh batteries capable of storing 100kWh of electricity.

Tesla has yet to produce a profit since it began operations four years ago. For the year ending 2014, Tesla generated $3.2 billion in revenues, but lost $294 million. In the first quarter 2015, Tesla reported revenues of $1.1 billion, but lost $154 million. By Elon Musk's own account, the company will not generate a profit until 2020.

Losing money is not unusual for startups during their early years, as they work towards building a customer base. Tesla is spending an estimated $5 billion for the new Tesla Gigaplant which is scheduled to be completed in 2016. The Powerwall battery has been described as a "luxury" item by Forbes energy analyst. The same thing can be said about the Tesla Model S all-electric sedan. With the announcement of the Powerwall battery, Elon Musk is taking a huge risk because of the aforementioned sticker shock, possible delays in production, possibility of reliability issues with the Powerwall battery, low margins (around 20% says Musk) and high initial costs to the homeowner, and no payback in sight.

Keep in mind that Tesla does not have solid orders, but "reservations," and without any deposits. Reservations can be cancelled at a minutes notice, especially if there are production problems or issues with Powerwall battery reliability. Tesla is still taking reservations, and they offer delivery beginning summer 2015, early 2016, mid 2016, late 2016 and early 2017. I could be wrong, but I doubt they will be able to meet deliveries for 2015.

Never under estimate Elon Musk. Tesla promised customers it would make deliveries of the Tesla Roadster (its first all-electric vehicle) in mid-2007, but it ran into production delays and a management reorganization. The first 100 Roadster were not delivered until early 2008 and it took until the fourth quarter 2012 to finish producing the 2,400+ roadsters ordered by customers. In spite of these delays, few customer cancelled their orders, although their deposits were fully refundable.

08/18/2014

The Elio is technically a motorcycle, but is a whole lot easier and safer to drive.

Most Americans--about 93%--drive to work alone. So why use a car that’s big enough for four? A new vehicle that’s half-motorcycle and half-car is designed to replace sedans and SUVs on morning commutes and help save money and emissions in the process: The Elio costs $6,800 and gets 84 miles to the gallon. It’s possible to drive 672 miles on a single tank of gas. That's the distance from New York City to Detroit.

Paul Elio, the founder and CEO of Elio Motors and inventor of the Elio three-wheeled car. (Click Image To Enlarge)

“The premise behind the concept is that most households have at least one vehicle that’s single occupant. Even if you have kids, you probably have an SUV or minivan, and then a small sedan with dust on the backseat. We can be that car.”

The Elio actually has two seats, set front to back for ideal aerodynamics, in case the driver needs to give someone a ride. Inside, it looks and acts pretty much like a car; it’s fully enclosed and has car seats and seatbelts, air bags, and options for manual orautomatic transmission. It's more like a car than this somewhat similar vehicle from Lit Motors. But because it has three wheels, it’s classified under law as a motorcycle.

The motorcycle classification leads to some strange consequences--in a few states, under current law, you’d have to wear a helmet even though the vehicle is enclosed. But it also has benefits. Elio says.

“As a motorcycle, you can go in the HOV lane by yourself.”

It also meant the vehicle can come to market more quickly, since there’s less red tape involved in manufacturing a motorcycle.

The Elio three-wheeled car (rear view) (Click Image To Enlarge)

Even though regulations don’t require it, the company plans to comply with all standards for cars that apply. Elio says.

“We’re engineering to achieve a 5-star crash rating in all directions. We’re going way beyond the minimum.”

Still, there are a few idiosyncrasies--the headlights, for example, can’t comply with car standards because motorcycle lights are required to be brighter by law.

Because the vehicle is so lightweight--about half the weight of a typical small car--the company can save on materials costs. Elio has also tried to optimize other steps in manufacturing to keep costs down. He says.

“We get all 34 of our suppliers together once every four to six weeks and we work on the vehicle as a group. That’s never been done before. All of these things add up to a lower price.”

When the vehicle comes to market next year, the Elio plans to have innovative financing to make the vehicle even easier to buy. Elio says.

“It’s actually cheaper to drive a brand new Elio than a clunker.”

The company will offer the option to buy the car with nothing but a special credit card for gas; every time someone buys gas, they’ll pay extra to make acar payment.

Elio explains.

“If you buy $10 of gas, it will show up as a $30 charge on your statement--that $20 extra is your vehicle payment. As long as you drove into the dealership with something that gets 27 miles per gallon or less--and we know there are 100 million of those cars out there--you’ll be paying less, and you’ll have a brand new vehicle under warranty.”

You'll also be helping reduce pollution. Elio says.

"If you drive it 20,000 miles per year, an Elio produces less emissions than one cow’s flatulence during the same time. We’re cleaner than a cow. After 10 years of sales, we expect to save 8 billion gallons of gas."

COMMENTARY: Because it has three wheels — two in front and one in the rear — the Elio is actually classified as a motorcycle by the U.S. government. But Elio Motors founder Paul Elio says the vehicle has all the safety features of a car, like anti-lock brakes, front and side air bags and a steel cage that surrounds the occupants. According to Paul Elio, the company hopes to ultimately achieve a five-star safety rating. Drivers won’t be required to wear helmets or have motorcycle licenses.

The Elio’s two seats sit front and back instead of side by side, so the driver is positioned in the center with the passenger directly behind. That arrangement, plus the low seating position — the Elio is just 54 inches tall — and the lack of power steering take a little getting used to.

But after a couple of spins around the block in this Detroit suburb, it felt like any other small car. That’s partly because its two front wheels stick out by a foot on both sides, aiding balance and preventing the vehicle from tipping. The Elio has a three-cylinder, 0.9-liter engine and a top speed of more than 100 miles per hour. It gets an estimated 84 mpg on the highway and 49 mpg in city driving.

Keeping Costs Low

Elio keeps the costs down in several ways. The car only has one door, on the left side, which shaves a few hundred dollars off the manufacturing costs. Having three wheels also makes it cheaper. It will be offered in just two configurations — with a manual or automatic transmission — and it has standard air conditioning, power windows and door locks and an AM/FM radio. More features, such as navigation or blind-spot detection, can be ordered through Elio’s long list of suppliers.

Germany’s Daimler also promised to revolutionize American commutes with the Smart car, but that hasn’t panned out, says Karl Brauer, a senior analyst with Kelley Blue Book. Smart sold just 9,264 cars in the U.S. last year.

The Smart has a starting price of $13,270 for a gas-powered car and gets 38 mpg on the highway — not enough savings or fuel economy to justify sacrificing comfort in the tiny car. But, Brauer said, the equation might work in the Elio.

He said.

“If it really gets 84 mpg and doesn’t drive terribly, it would justify the compromises you’re making in size and comfort.”

Elio will also save money by selling the cars directly through its own stores and not through franchised dealers, similar to electric car maker Tesla Motors. Elio plans stores in 60 major metropolitan areas. They’ll be serviced by car repair chain Pep Boys.

The Entrepreneur Behind The Elio

Paul Elio, a one-time stockbroker and New York City cab driver, dreamed as a kid that he would one day own a car company called Elio Motors.

Elio told The Associated Press.

“As I matured I decided that was as likely as playing in the NFL.”

But he did earn an engineering degree at General Motors Institute — now Kettering University — and started his own company engineering products like children’s car seats.

In 2008, tired of high gas prices and the country’s dependence on foreign oil, he started working on a fuel-efficient car. Equally important to him was creating U.S. manufacturing jobs and making the car inexpensive enough to appeal to buyers who might otherwise be stuck in old, unreliable clunkers.

He said.

“Whatever matters to you, this can move the needle on it.”

The recession killed his engineering company, but it also provided the opportunity to buy the Shreveport plant when GM filed for bankruptcy protection. Elio Motors plans to employ 1,500 people at the plant.

The company has also applied for a $185 million advanced vehicle development loan from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Paul Elio said so far, reservation holders are older, more affluent buyers who will use the Elio as a second or third car for commuting.

He said.

“It’s an ‘and’ purchase for a lot of folks. So keep your SUV or your minivan or your large sedan, and when you’re driving back and forth to work all by yourself, take the Elio. At this price point and this mileage, that works financially for folks.”

Eventually, though, he believes the car will appeal to high school and college students as well as used-car drivers who want something newer and more reliable. He also hopes to eventually export it to other countries.

Elio Motors Makes Progress in Helmet Exemption Legislation

Louisiana is the most recent state to declare helmet exemptionexemption for the Elio, which is federally classified as an enclosed motorcycle. House Bill 218 was unanimously approved in Louisiana, where the Elio will be manufactured, in late June. New York also has an exemption on the books, allowing the Elio to be driven around the progressive state without a helmet.

Another legislative success is quickly emerging. Michigan Senate Bill 390 was recently passed, and is expected to pass through the House unanimously, following Louisiana’s lead. This is good news for the company, which will base their corporate headquarters out of the state. Louisiana, New York, and Michigan join 42 other states which allow the Elio to be driven sans helmet.

There are only 4 or 5 states left that technically require a helmet with this vehicle, since its licensed as a motorcycle. They've managed to get exemptions in numerous states already. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Among the 5 states that technically require helmets to be worn while driving the Elio, are Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, West Virginia, and Nebraska.

Elio Motors’ Vice President of Government Affairs, Joel Sheltrown says,

“We are actively working with the five helmet states’ legislators to work through any issues they may have. Given our success in the other 45 states, we are optimistic about solving any issues we may face.”

Sheltrown adds that Missouri, a helmet-state, has already identified bill sponsors and drafted legislation to exempt the Elio from their helmet laws.

Big Plans To Expand

Phoenix-based Elio plans to start making the cars next fall at a former General Motors plant in Shreveport, Louisiana. Already, more than 27,000 people have reserved one. Elio hopes to make 250,000 cars a year by 2016. That’s close to the number Mazda sells in the U.S.

Elio Motors executives placed a temporary sign outside the former General Motors plant in Shreveport, La. (Click Image To Enlarge)

The Caddo Parrish's Revitalizing Auto Communities Environmental Response (RACER) Trust is responsible for selling and cleaning up former General Motors properties and has agreed to sell the shuttered General Motors plant near Shreveport, La., to Elio Motors. The start-up carmaker plans to hire 1,500 new workers.

Elio Motors will rent approximately 1.5 million square feet of the 4.1 million square foot building from Industrial Realty Group, who leases the GM plant.

The deal was heralded by Louisiana politicians as an economic victory for a community devastated by GM's contraction. The state was expected to provide incentives for the project, but details were not immediately available.

Closing Statements

I remain skeptical that Elio Motors can raise sufficient startup capital to modernize and equip their plant in Shreveport, Lousiana in time to begin production of the Elio car by fall 2015. According to Paul Elio, Elio Motors CEO, the company is trying to raise $165 million.

By comparison, Tesla Motors had to raise over $500 million, which included a $465 million direct loan from the Department of Energy, just to have sufficient capital to hire plant workers, modernize and equip their plant in Fremont, California in order to build the Roadster, their first all-electric car.

Tesla Motors required much more startup capital because the Roadster, a four-wheeled and all-electric sports car was a far more complex automobile to build, requiring parts from hundreds of vendors. The Roadster is a two-seater sportscar that weighed over 2,700 lbs, could travel about 245 miles on an electrical charge, has a top speed of 187 mph and could do 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds. The price tag: $109,000.

By comparison, the Elio is a three-wheeled car/motorcycle that uses a three-cylinder motor and weighs only 1,600 lbs, with a top speed over just over 100 mph, and a range of 672 miles (highway) on a tank of gas. The price tag: $6,800. According to Paul Elio, Elio Motors CEO, the majority of key parts and components are sourced from about 30 vendors.

If Elio Motors can raise the startup capital they need (see above), they could conceivably begin limited production in late 2015, but I doubt they can deliver 27,000 vehicles (their current pre-orders, but I wonder how many of those pre-orders are solid) in 2015. It takes time to hire plant workers, especially skilled factory workers when the U.S. auto industry doing so well, and workers will be reluctant to leave a well established, well-financed employer for a startup like Elio Motors.

06/02/2013

The Footloose by Mando is doubtless going to make you want to test ride it. Asserting that it is the world’s first chainless hybrid electric folding bike, Korean auto suppliers Mando Corp and Meister Inc have collaborated to bring us this beautiful design.

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Designboom states it can go up to 18.6 miles with the motor alone, and farther with pedaling by the rider.

“By directly transforming electricity via an alternator connected to the crank, power is generated directly from the user. The energy stored in a lithium-ion battery, which is then used to actuate the engine. Using an electronic control unit (ECU), the ‘footloose’ works with sensors and an automatic gear changer to monitor terrain and adjust the motor’s output as necessary. It monitors the system for problems, which it displays via a handlebar-mounted human machine interface (HMI).”

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It will apparently be available in the European markets starting 2013. Here is a video illustrating the bike a bit more:

COMMENTARY: This is a paradigm change in the e-bike world for sure. It is a clean and simple design. It removes all of the typical bicycle drivetrain components: the chain, chainrings, cogs, derailleurs, and shifters. This also removes the dirty, greasy chain!

Of course it adds the alternator and some other electronic components but overall it appears to be a system with less components. As long as it proves to be reliable, the series hybrid system could be a great e-bike drive system for the future.

The Footloose was developed in a partnership project of Mando Corp. and Meister Inc. (automotive suppliers in South Korea). British designer Mark Sanders and Dutch e-bike expert Han Goes were very involved in the design.

The New York Post first reported that Diaz bought one of the electric sports cars from Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) earlier this year, and Musk became acquainted with the actress.

According to the report, Musk became close to Diaz and he had been increasingly traveling from Tesla headquarters in Palo Alto, California to Los Angeles. Musk travels regularly & arrives unexpectedly at the company’s office in LA. Sources told the New York Post that Musk was “visiting Cameron.”

Tesla Motors Model S all-electric sedan (Click Image To Enlarge)

The report said the Diaz is a big fan of Musk. She bought a Tesla Model S EV, an energy-friendly electric sedan with a top speed of 130 mph

Meanwhile, during the interview with Squawk on the Street, Musk said that the lowered-priced sedan from Tesla Motors, Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) will be available in the market over the next three to five years. According to him, the car will be as good as the BMW3 series or the Audi A4, and it is smaller than the Tesla Model S, and half of its price. Musk previously stated that the company’s low priced entry-level car will compete with Nissan Leaf.

Tesla Motors Model S all-electric sedan (Click Image To Enlarge)

During the interview, Musk also revealed the Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) engaged in preliminary discussions with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) regarding the self-driving car technology, which will be integrated in Tesla vehicles. He also said that the company is improving the recharging time for its vehicles.

In addition, Musk also said that a hyperloop will be cheaper mile by mile than high speed rail. Musk stated.

”Isn’t there something much better than could be done? I think it could be done for about one-tenth of the cost for the high speed rail scheduled for California.”

He plans to discuss his hyperloop idea on June 20.

The shares of Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) and SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY) have been performing well. Musk is the largest shareholder of Tesla and his wealth increased by $2.9 billion. Data from Bloomberg showed that his net worth doubled to around $4.8 billion this year.

COMMENTARY: Elon Musk is not only an entrepreneurial genius, but a notorious "poon-hunter," and what better way to attract sexy, beautiful dames, but with a Tesla Motors all-electric vehicle. Having said this, if the rumors linking these two are true, I wonder whether Tesla Motors Inc stock will go up or down on the news. LOL Shares have exploded during the month of May 2013 from $53.28 on May 1, 2013 to a high of $110.334 on May 28, 2013. Shares have come down a bit since then and ended the month of May at $97.76. According to Wall Street analysts, the explosive increase in Tesla Motors' share prices is driven mostly by investor hype and higher than normal ZEV tax credits on each vehicle sold. These ZEV tax credits have pushed Tesla's margins to 17% from a previous 8%. Adjusting out these ZEV tax credits, the actual margins should be around 5%. Already several analysts have cautioned investors of a potential bubble. I definitely agree.

05/02/2013

Facebook is expanding its headquarters in grand fashion--in this case, to a second campus that connects to the main one in Menlo Park, California (Click Image To Enlarge)

The company is building a giant addition to their headquarters, and a giant park to go along with it. That park just happens to be on the roof.

Architect Frank Gehry is designing the building (Click Image To Enlarge)

On top of it is a giant green roof that spans most of the 433,555 square foot structure (Click Image To Enlarge)

It’s less a green roof than an entire park (Click Image To Enlarge)

Like so many tech companies flush with cash, Facebook is expanding its headquarters in grand fashion--in this case, to a second campus that connects to the main one in Menlo Park, California. Architect Frank Gehry is designing the building (Warning: That PDF takes a long time to load), which Facebook describes as "a large, one room building that somewhat resembles a warehouse." But we’re not so much interested in the interior of this particular building than what’s on top of it: a giant green roof that spans most of the 433,555 square foot structure.

It will include oak trees… (Click Image To Enlarge)

…a walking trail… (Click Image To Enlarge)

… furniture to lounge on… (Click Image To Enlarge)

It’s less a green roof than an entire park. It will include oak trees, a walking trail, furniture to lounge on--and like Google’s planned green roof, it will have kiosks and cafes, according to Greenbiz.

The roof will also be flush with flora and fauna. Facebook writes: "We’re planting a ton of trees on the grounds and more on the rooftop garden that spans the entire building." Beyond the oak trees, we can’t say exactly what Facebook is planting, but we do know this: Menlo Park ordinances require 80% of the plantings to be either native or xeriscape, meaning they need little or no water.

… and even kiosks and cafes (Click Image To Enlarge)

Beyond the oak trees, we can’t say exactly what Facebook is planting, but we do know this: Menlo Park ordinances require 80% of the plantings to be either native or xeriscape, meaning they need little or no water (Click Image To Enlarge)

See-through image of the new green office complex (Click Image To Enlarge)

For the sake of everyone working in the warehouse space below, let’s hope that the roof also has fast Wi-Fi and some decent workspaces. After all, ample sun is one of the more attractive features of Silicon Valley life.

COMMENTARY: If Facebook employees aren't spoiled enough already with the Epic Cafe and free food 24/7, 365, then the green rooftop garden in the Facebook expansion offices will spoil them rotten to a whole new level.

04/14/2013

In all, global venture capital (VC) investments in the solar sector fell dramatically, from $220 million in the fourth quarter of last year to just $126 million in Q1'13, according to a new report from Mercom Capital Group.

Reflecting the dominant industry trends, solar funding during the first quarter of 2013 (Q1'13) favored project acquisitions and funding of downstream providers, as investors shied away from the struggling manufacturing segment.

Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group, says that because an overall downturn began in the third quarter of last year, this most recent slump was mostly in line with expectations - if a bit more severe than anticipated. Solar VC funding had not fallen to such low levels since 2008.

At least some of the recent decline can be attributed to major attrition among formerly hot startups representing a traditional VC favorite: thin-film solar manufacturers.

Prabhu tells Solar Industry.

"Thin-film companies received approximately $1.4 billion in VC funding the past three years - and [copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS)] companies received a billion of that. Most of these companies are either bankrupt or were part of a fire sale."

Fourteen thin-film solar companies went bankrupt in 2012 alone, according to the report, and Prabhu describes current market conditions for any holdouts as "extremely tough."

"I would still keep an eye on all the thin-film CIGS companies that were bought by - or formed strategic partnerships with - large Chinese or Korean conglomerates. These conglomerates have a lot of resources, and if the intellectual property is strong, they have the ability to see [CIGS companies] through to commercialization."

Biggest deals

Topping the list for the biggest VC deals in Q1'13 was a pair of U.S.-based residential solar firms. OneRoof Energy raised $30 million from well-known Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group, while Sungevity raised $28 million in Series D financing from a range of investors, including Brightpath Capital Partners, Lowe's and Craton Equity Partners.

Fueled by the glut of low-priced modules, downstream providers such as OneRoof and Sungevity were joined by several other companies - mostly leasing firms - in raising a total of $75 million in eight deals during Q1'13, according to Mercom Capital.

This sector of the market has faced scrutiny in recent months over finance arrangements that some believe are unfair to consumers. The U.S. Department of the Treasury is also currently probing several of the biggest rooftop PV providers over possible discrepancies in project valuations.

So far, however, the threat of any potential regulatory shake-up in this sector has failed to rattle investors, Prabhu reports.

He says.

"Just from an investment and investor point of view, there seems to be little concern regarding this. Most of the VC funding this quarter went to lease firms, and these firms also raised about half a billion in residential and commercial project funds."

Large-scale solar project development also enjoyed an active quarter. Mercom Capital Group found that disclosed project acquisitions reached $137 million in 20 transactions. Although this total represents a decline from $297 million in the previous quarter, the number of transactions rose. More than 1 GW of projects changed hands.

"Both last year and this quarter, investment funds have been the most active acquirers of solar projects."

He adds.

"This positive trend demonstrates that solar assets have shifted in the eyes of the investment community, from being considered a risky proposition a few years ago to their inclusion in institutional investor portfolios as a source of safe, steady, long-term returns."

Overall, although the big picture for solar VC may still seem dismal at the moment, Prabhu remains optimistic.

He stresses.

"It is not all bad. Installations continued to grow, and there is a lot of positive activity on the project funding and acquisition side."

COMMENTARY: It does not surprise me that VC financings for the solar sector dropped so much. The worldwide glut in solar panels, dramatic drop in prices, and collapse of thin film technologies, has raised the risk of investing in solar. PV panel installers appear to be doing well, as they are the chief beneficiaries of the glut in PV panels and lower prices.

Breakthrough technology takes carbon, hydrogen and oxygen from CO2 and water in the air to create methanol and then converts it into gasoline.

Gasoline is the quintessential non-renewable fuel, but British scientists could soon change that. They have developed a way to make gasoline not only renewable, but also carbon neutral. How is that possible? By plucking the fuel out of the air, according to New Scientist.

XX

It sounds like alchemy or magic — an idea about as sensible as growing money on trees. But it's real. Researchers have developed a way to convert air into gasoline. In fact, the concept has been around for decades, ever since the oil crisis of the 1970s.

Here's basically how it works: first scientists collect carbon, hydrogen and oxygen from the CO2and water that are readily present in the air. These raw materials are all that are needed to generate methanol, and methanol can be converted into gasoline.

It seems so simple that you may wonder why we haven't been getting our gasoline this way all along. Well, that's because there's just one small complication: So far scientists haven't been able to prove that the process generates more energy than it requires. The technique requires electricity for its chemical conversions, and the process cannot be viable until it is demonstrated that the energy needed as input costs less than what is gained as output.

That's where British company Air Fuel Synthesis comes in. The company has taken on the task of demonstrating that the technique works, that it produces a viable fuel, and that it can be made energy-efficient. The first half of the equation has now been settled, as the company has successfully demonstrated the conversion process.

Peter Edwards, an inorganic chemist at the University of Oxford, said.

D

"I take my hat off to Air Fuel Synthesis. They have taken a concept that has been around for 35 years and gotten the process going."

The fuel is not only viable; the company believes it will be suitable for high-performance vehicles. But the biggest benefit of the fuel is its sustainability. Since burning the fuel only releases the same carbon dioxide that was already in the air to begin with, it is carbon neutral. (That is, so long as the electricity required to make the necessary chemical conversions is sourced from renewable energy like wind or solar.)

Another potential benefit of the fuel is that it will be price-predictable. Gas prices won't fluctuate because the fuel source will be stable.

Before any of this is possible, however, Air Fuel Synthesis needs to demonstrate the vital second half of the equation: the energy-efficiency of the process. For that, the company will need a bigger plant. They expect to have one up and running by 2015. Given the success of the process so far, the company is optimistic.

AFS marketing manager Graham Truscott said.

D

"The demonstrator has given us the confidence that this next level of gasoline plant will be efficient enough." D

Air Fuel Synthesis technician displays a vial of full of methanol extracted from air using its technology (Click Image To Enlarge)

COMMENTARY: Rather than mine carbon from the Earth in the form of coal, AFS acquires its carbon from the CO2 in the atmosphere. The result is a process whose only net production of CO2 is related to the power required to drive synthesis of the fuel. The general approach has been suggested by numerous people over the years, but AFS appears to be the first commercial company to work out the details and put together a pilot plant. Admittedly, the pilot plant is only producing about 1 percent of the projected yield per day, but the technological problems can be solved, as they have been in other contexts.

The AFS Process - Turning Air Into A Sustainable Fuel

Air is blown up into a tower and meets a mist of a sodium hydroxide solution. The carbon dioxide in the air is absorbed by reaction with some of the sodium hydroxide to form sodium carbonate. Whilst there are advances in CO2 capture technology, sodium hydroxide has been chosen as it is proven and market ready.

The sodium hydroxide/carbonate solution that results from Step 1 is pumped into an electrolysis cell through which an electric current is passed. The electricity results in the release of the carbon dioxide which is collected and stored for subsequent reaction.

Optionally, a dehumidifier condenses the water out of the air that is being passed into the sodium hydroxide spray tower. The condensed water is passed into an electrolyser where an electric current splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen. Water might be obtained from any source so long as it is or can be made pure enough to be placed in the electrolyser.

The carbon dioxide and hydrogen are reacted together to make a hydrocarbon mixture, the reaction conditions being varied depending on the type of fuel that is required.

There are a number of reaction paths already in existence and well known in industrial chemistry that may be used to make the fuels.

Thus a reverse-water-gas shift reaction may be used to convert a carbon dioxide/water mixture to a carbon monoxide/hydrogen mixture called Syn Gas. The Syn Gas mixture can then be further reacted to form the desired fuels using the Fisher-Tropsch (FT) reaction.

Alternatively, the Syn Gas may be reacted to form methanol and the methanol used to make fuels via the Mobil methanol-to gasoline reaction (MTG).

For the future, it is highly likely that reactions can be developed whereby carbon dioxide and hydrogen can be directly reacted to fuels.

The AFD product will require the addition of the same additives used in current fuels to ease starting, burn cleanly and avoid corrosion problems, to turn the raw fuel into a full marketable product. However as a product it can be blended directly with gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel.

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The Challenges To Produce Gasoline That is Carbon Neutral

According to Allen Ginsberg's poetic rewording of the laws of thermodynamics:

You can't win.

You can't breakeven.

You can't quit.

Air Fuel Synthesis, Ltd. (AFS) made headlines for a chemical process that claims to synthesize gasoline from air and water. In essence, AFS is using energy to unburn fuel so that it can be burned as fuel again – a great deal of energy. Sixty kWh of electric energy are used up to store 9 kWh of that energy in a liter of gasoline. When you take into consideration that gasoline vehicles are about 15 percent efficient, a car fueled with synthetic gasoline would use roughly 35 times more energy on a given trip than would an electric vehicle. Not, it would seem, a prescription for a commercially valuable green product.

AFS develops commercially sustainable fuel projects by leveraging our technology and project expertise and connections. We build containerised fuel production units in projects which can be located anywhere that a supply of renewable electricity exists.

The projects that build these plants can include special purpose vehicles in which AFS holds minority stakes and licensing arrangements.

01/28/2013

AS TESLA SEARCHES FOR ITS MAINSTREAM IDENTITY, WE STILL DON’T SEE WHAT THERE IS TO GET SO EXCITED ABOUT.

As of late, the automotive press has nothing but goodthings to say about the Tesla Model X. Shown for the first time in the flesh at the Detroit Auto Show, it’s already a hit, with $40 million in pre-orders thus far (though to put that figure into perspective, Tesla posted a $200 million loss last quarter).

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We’re trying so hard to get the Model X, to rally behind the electric car that’s challenged the stubborn suits in Detroit, to fist pump a world that’s less reliant on fossil fuels. But all we see is an uninspired yuppie-mobile (do they still make yuppies?), a pornographic attempt at erotica. The DDD silicone bust line is the 17-inch touch-screen control panel. The “falcon-wing” doors are a pair of legs that stretch behind a neck. “Why is this necessary?” you ask. “Why not?” Tesla answers quickly, hoping you’ll be so smitten by the high beams that you won’t look too closely at the backend, which is the cross between a Prius and a Pontiac Aztek.

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The gull-wing doors are of particular note. On a spec sheet, you’ll hear how easily they accommodate rear seating for five. But in practice, you have to wonder, is it really worth having gull-wing doors just to accommodate two extra people crammed into the equivalent of jumpseats? Would a family of seven really look to this car as their comfortable familymobile?

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Looking back at car history, the gull-wing door--for however extravagant it looked--was actually a practical solution to a common problem. Sports cars rode close to the ground, so opening a door often meant a jewel of a car would scrape against uneven pavement. But the Model X is an SUV (or crossover, if you prefer that invented word). It already has more than ample ground clearance, and from what we understand, the Model X doesn’t actually fly, so gull-wing doors are inherently ridiculous.

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Then why are the doors even there? Well the Model X is a generic-looking car. Not a single statement within the design is confident enough to say “I’m a Tesla, dammit.” Instead, designers attached these doors to do the shouting instead. Maybe that cheat would be fine if gull-wing doors weren’t such an expensive upgrade in a vehicle, and if their maintenance weren’t legendarily finicky. Instead, every Model X driver is really a donor subsidizing the curbside marketing budget of Tesla’s only, sadly extravagant brand identifier, just so fellow shoppers know that their particular generic SUV is actually really fast, fairly green, and costs a whole lot of money.

Honestly, we shouldn’t care this much, and we wouldn’t, were Tesla just another premium car brand that didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. But someone needs to come around and make an electric car that’s aimed for the masses yet embodies everything great about “cars” rather than “electricity.” Chevy didn’t get there with the Volt. Tesla once looked like they may be close, at least for the premium market, but their results thus far have been wholly uninspiring.

COMMENTARY: In spite of criticism over Tesla Model X's design, it can easily transport 7 passengers, so it is definitely competing in the high-end SUV market. When the Model X was first unveiled in February 2012, price range estimates were somewhere between $80,000 and $100,000 depending on options. For an SUV, the Model X is relatively expensive, but Tesla claims it already has $40 million in pre-orders. Assuming that the average price per pre-order is $90,000, then this equates to about 445 Model X's since February 2012. That's not an impressive number when compared to the Model S, which had over 3,000 pre-orders.

Here's the skinny on the Model X.

The Soul of Every Tesla

Model X is a family vehicle with performance roots. The Tesla Vehicle Platform enables Model X to perform in ways never expected from a car of its size. With a center of gravity lower than any other SUV, you’ll notice nimble reflexes at every turn. The electric powertrain delivers instant torque for confident lane changes, even when loaded with seven adults and all their gear.

Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive

Model X is offered with optional Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive. The second motor enables more than all-weather, all-road capabilities: it increases torque by 50%. When outfitted with AWD, Model X Performance accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in less than 5 seconds, outperforming the fastest SUVs and many sports cars.

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If interested in placing a pre-order on a new Tesla Model X, you will need to make a deposit of $5,000. You can place your pre-order by clicking HERE.